忍恥到江州 Enduring Shame at Jiangzhou
卻說殷小姐痛恨劉賊，恨不食肉寢皮。只因身懷有孕，未知男女，萬不得已，權且勉強相從。轉盼之間，不覺已到江州。吏書門皂，俱來迎接。所屬官員，公堂設宴相敘。劉洪道：「學生到此，全賴諸公大力匡持。」屬官答道：「堂尊大魁高才，自然視民如子，訟簡刑清。我等合屬有賴，何必過謙？」公宴已罷，眾人各散。却说殷小姐痛恨刘贼，恨不食肉寝皮。只因身怀有孕，未知男女，万不得已，权且勉强相从。转盼之间，不觉已到江州。吏书门皂，俱来迎接。所属官员，公堂设宴相叙。刘洪道：「学生到此，全赖诸公大力匡持。」属官答道：「堂尊大魁高才，自然视民如子，讼简刑清。我等合属有赖，何必过谦？」公宴已罢，众人各散。
逐句解 Line by line
Now Yin Wenjiao bitterly hated the villain Liu, hating him enough 'to eat his flesh and sleep upon his skin.'
食肉寢皮 — eat his flesh, sleep on his hide — is an old set phrase for hatred past the point of language, and the 恨不 in front of it means she resents not being able to do it. The phrase is still used in Chinese, usually with the heat turned well down. Here it runs at full strength.
But because she was with child, not knowing whether it would be a boy or a girl, she had no recourse but to comply with him for the time, against her will.
Every word in this line is doing defensive work. 萬不得已 is having no alternative whatever, ten thousand times unable to stop. 勉強, forcing oneself, takes 強 as qiǎng, to compel, rather than the qiáng that means strong; and 相從, going along with him, takes the mutual 相, xiāng. But the clause carrying the real weight is the plainest: she does not yet know whether the child is a boy.
In the turn of an eye, before she knew it they had reached Jiangzhou.
轉盼之間, in the time it takes to turn a glance. The novel skips the journey. There is nothing in it anyone would want to read.
Clerks, scribes, and yamen runners all came out to receive them,
吏書門皂 is the entire staff of a local government office in four characters: clerks, scribes, gatemen, runners. 皂, zào, means black, and the runners are named for the black uniforms they wore.
and the officials of the district set out a banquet in the public hall to greet them.
相敘, to sit down together and talk, with the mutual 相. This is the welcome banquet for a new boss, and it is being thrown for a murderer.
Liu Hong said, 'Now that I have come here, I rely wholly on you gentlemen's great support to sustain me.'
學生, this student, is the modest word an official uses of himself among colleagues; Liu Hong has picked up the register along with the hat. 匡持 is to prop up and hold steady.
The subordinate officials answered, 'Your Honor, a man of the highest distinction and talent, will surely look on the people as his own children, keeping litigation simple and punishments clean.'
They flatter him with the standard virtues of a good magistrate. 大魁 is another word for the Top Graduate; 視民如子 is to look on the people as your own children, with 子 full as zǐ; 訟簡刑清 is lawsuits few and punishments clean. Every quality they name belonged to the man he killed.
'We who serve under you all have something to rely on — why be so modest?'
合屬, the whole staff taken together. Why be so modest, they ask him — the one honest question in the room.
When the public banquet was over, the company dispersed.
各散, each went his own way. The banquet breaks up, everyone goes home pleased, and the only two people in Jiangzhou who know what happened are the murderer and the woman sitting beside him.
The chapter gives Yin Wenjiao's position its full bitterness before it offers her any relief at all. She hates Liu Hong enough 食肉寢皮, enough to eat his flesh and sleep on his hide, and she goes along with him anyway — 勉強相從, forcing herself. The reason is stated flatly and is the only reason there is: she is pregnant, and does not yet know whether the child is a son. Everything she does for the next eighteen years follows from that one clause.
Then the novel cuts to a welcome banquet. The subordinate officials of Jiangzhou queue up to praise their new governor for precisely the qualities of the man he murdered: 視民如子, looking on the people as his own children, and 訟簡刑清, few lawsuits and clean punishments. They intend flattery. It reads as an obituary.
The technique is simple and it works: the reader knows, and nobody at that table does, except the woman who has to sit through it.